Bureau

Ms Alissandra Cummins is Director of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society and Chairperson of both the National Art Gallery Committee and the Barbados National Commission for UNESCO.

From 1998 to 2001, she was Member of the UNESCO Executive Board and chaired Commission I during the 31st session of the General Conference. She initiated the Group of Chairs and Presidents of National Commissions, with New Zealand, Iceland and Canada. She served as Chairperson of the Finance and Administrative Commission of the Executive Board in 2010-2011 and chaired the FA Commissions meetings from the 184th to 187th sessions of the Executive Board.

She was also President of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) (2004-2010) and President of the International Advisory Committee of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme (2007-2009) and later Vice-President until 2012. She also served as the Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation between 2003-2005.

In addition, in 2007 she became Barbados' cultural heritage representative on UNESCO's World Heritage Committee and served as its Rapporteur during 2008, following which she became the World Heritage Committee’s Vice President in 2009 and again in 2011. She contributed widely to the influence and protection of cultural heritage in her country in 1999 and was Special Envoy for Cultural Heritage in Barbados.

In 2005 Ms Cummins was awarded Barbados' Gold Crown of Merit in recognition of her services to heritage and museum development. In 2006, she was recognized by UNESCO as one of "sixty eminent women who, in different parts of the world, in different positions and at different moments across the history of the Organization, have made, and in many ways are still making, significant contributions to the ideals and action of the Organization, be it in education, culture, science or communication".